Four Agents and a Little Lady
by SicklySweetNanny
Summary: Every team needs a mascot.
1. Chapter 1

_Thanks to The Beta Branch for their ongoing support and critical eyes with the ficlets I keep churning out. There's more of this story to come, guys. Hope you enjoy. _

The dog went down with a shrill yelp that startled all of them.

Brandt and Dunn, being the two self-confessed animal lovers of the group, were by its side in an instant.

"Where'd she get hit?" Hunt asked when he joined them, one hand pressed to an injured hip while he ran the back of the other across his face.

Brandt ran a hand along the dog's flank. The constant low whimper became a high pitched whine when he crossed the spot above its hind leg, and Ethan had his answer.

"She'll survive that," he said with confidence. "Put her in the trunk."

Will looked at him as if offended. "The trunk?"

Instead, they made the journey with Brandt in the back seat, the dog across his lap and Benji peering over the passenger side head rest at irregular intervals to check up on them.

Will carried her into the vets office in his arms, offered a mumbled excuse about jogging and cattle and farmers, and allowed himself to be ushered out into the waiting room while the dog was taken into surgery.

"Where did she even come from," Benji wondered, breaking the silence of the room and earning a stern look from the elderly secretary.

Will shrugged a shoulder and leaned against the wall by the plastic seat Jane occupied.

"She's a cute dog," Jane commented.

He just nodded and pretended to be suddenly interested in the pile of month-old magazines on the window ledge.

They waited patiently for two hours; several people had come and gone since their arrival, but no vets or nurses came out to update them.

They were nearing their fourth hour of waiting when the veterinary surgeon walked out of the backroom that the dog had been taken into, still wearing aqua scrubs and a surgical mask that he pulled hastily from his face as he approached them.

"You're the ones who brought in the dog who'd been shot?"

Brandt was on his feet in seconds, nodding and shaking the surgeon's offered hand. "How is she?"

"The bullet just missed her left femur," he said. "She was lucky."

Benji looked down guiltily at the same time that Jane stepped forward. "Is she alive?"

"She's alive," he confirmed. "But she won't be walking on that leg for a long while."

"Can we see her?" Will asked.

The vet nodded, and gestured toward the door that he had come through. Will led the way, and took his place at the unconscious dog's side. The fur above her hind leg had been shaved, revealing pink skin stitched together with thick black thread.

She was a stocky animal, with a broad chest and short stubby ears. Her black coat seemed dull under the light of the surgery, and the way her ribs were visible through a flea bitten coat left little wonder as to how long she'd been roaming.

It was a look exchanged between Jane and Ethan behind Will and Benji's backs that seemed to make the decision.

When the dog groggily awoke hours later, her injured leg in a stiff pink cast covered in patterned paw prints, it was to Hunt stroking the ruffled fur of her neck. She raised her head, stretched the three legs she could still move and yawned loudly, revealing an impressive set of pearly canines.

Ethan smiled a little, reached down and scratched her neck again. "Welcome to the team, dog."


	2. Chapter 2

"Sit."

The dog sat. Her brown eyes seemed to shimmer as she stared adoringly at Will, waiting for the treat that he always tossed her way.

He smiled, and tried not to roll his eyes at the look of amusement Ethan was giving him.

"Good girl," he cooed, reaching out to ruffle an ear with one hand and slip her a piece of kibble with the other.

"You're doing a good job with her," Jane commented from beside him. She sat with her legs curled underneath her and a blanket draped around her shoulders, watching the dog affectionately.

Strictly speaking, they were not allowed to keep pets. Being ready to leave on a mission at a moments notice didn't leave much room for dragging a dog around with them. But, as Benji had argued, the dog wasn't so much a pet as it was a new addition to their team.

After much debate and several internet searches, they had all come to agree that the dog, with her broad chest and strong jaws, was an American bull terrier.

Taking her to the pound had felt wrong to Will. He seemed fairly certain that it had been his stray bullet that'd hit her in the first place, and so despite Ethan's half-hearted arguments, he'd brought her back to base with them.

"I still think we should name her Dell," Benji said brightly.

Will shot him a disbelieving look. "We're not naming her after a computer, Benji. Dell isn't even a name."

"With a bit of thought it can be," Benji said huffily. "What about Delilah?"

"Delilah?" Will repeated, staring at Benji with his best 'are you really that stupid' look. "Look at her! She's tough as hell. She needs a name to reflect that. Like...Angie, or something."

Benji raised an eyebrow, and even Ethan glanced over from the table, a questioning look on his face. "Angie?"

"You know, like Angeline Jolie," Will said with a shrug. "That woman's terrifying."

Jane spared him a withering look before going back to the magazine she'd been flicking through.

"Delilah is better," Benji insisted.

The dog turned to look at him, head cocked as she momentarily paused her panting as if deep in thought.

"Look, see?" Benji said triumphantly. "She agrees. Delilah, here girl!"

The dog pushed herself to her feet with only a little stiffness, and Will couldn't help but admire the way all four legs seemed to take an even spread of her weight. It was impossible to tell that she had been on the receiving end of a bullet just months before.

Her coat had taken on more of a shine, and thanks to a diet of whatever the hell that food was that Benji was buying in bulk online, she had filled out to a healthy weight. With just a bit of work, she was turning out to be quite an impressive dog.

It wasn't until Benji's voice cut through his thoughts that Will realized he'd somehow lost the fight with his silence.

"We'll buy her nametags, you know those little ones you can get that are shaped like a bone? Get Delilah engraved on it," Benji said enthusiastically. "Or maybe one of the love heart ones? I'll order one off e-bay, they do the name with pink diamonds online. . ."

Will groaned. His tough dog was going to be a laughing stock.


	3. Chapter 3

_To be clear, I don't agree with Brandt's view on doggy nutrition in this chapter. But I believe 100% that he does. xD_

Brandt's lip was split, and blood leaked in a thin rivulet down his chin, dripping to the floor and leaving a trail behind him as he walked.

His head was pounding and when he shut his right eye he could still see purple and yellow stars out his left, and he just knew that was going to be one ugly bruise the next morning.

It hurt to breathe where he'd been punched repeatedly in the stomach, and his back still ached from his hard landing against the ground when he'd been unceremoniously tossed out a window.

But he was alive, and the mission had been a success. Benji was sporting two black eyes and a broken thumb, Ethan a mild concussion and Jane a minor stab wound that had her still in the hospital. At another time he would wait with her, but tonight he needed to get home and sleep, a point which Jane had reinforced when he'd stopped by to see how she was doing.

Ethan and Benji were still at the hospital, and so he wasn't expecting to have to do anything other than fall - very gently - into his bed and sleep for a month when he got home.

It slipped his mind until he let himself in and was greeted by a muted woof and a wagging tail that he still had to feed the dog.

"You better thank me in the morning," he muttered as he forked tinned meat into a metal doggy dish. The smell made him want to gag, but it was either this or kibble and he was not going to be the asshole that forced his dog to eat cereal all day every day.

He bent gently, wincing at the pain in his chest and back, and slid the bowl over to Delilah. She lowered her head, sniffed the food, and looked at him, tail wagging slightly.

"What?"

She spared the food a final, almost longing glance, and padded over to him. Will shook his head and sank into the closest couch, not caring that the light in the kitchen was still on or that he was fully dressed.

He curled sideways on the chair and rested his head on a cushion. Before the grip of unconsciousness fully took hold, he was aware of a warm weight pushing him back a bit, before settling, curled up against his stomach.


	4. Chapter 4

They had all thought Brandt difficult to deal with at times.

He and Hunt, though good friends, were polar opposites in how they worked. If the plan was not laid out perfectly, every detail discussed and examined, the former analyst was a nightmare for the duration of the mission.

Taking him on a mission post-Delilah, however, was a new level of unbearable.

"Do you think they're feeding her right?"

Hunt craned his neck around the edge of the steel pillar they crouched behind, dodging back just in time to avoid a bullet that nicked the metal and ricocheted off in the opposite direction. He fired a shot in the direction the bullet had come from, heard a yell and a thud, and ducked back beside Brandt to reload his gun.

Brandt glanced both ways, darted forward and gestured Hunt to follow. As they ghosted along the dark walls of the building, he continued to whisper.

"I hate the thought of her locked up in that kennel all day. I paid the extra to have her walked three times a day, but -" he paused to fire a bullet at a goon who had stepped into their path, before continuing like nothing had happened. "She might miss me, you know? Last time we put her in there she lost weight because she wasn't eating."

Hunt tried very hard not to roll his eyes, but was saved from having to answer by Carter's voice in their comms.

"The Joker is in the building. How's Penguin?"

"Copy, Catwoman. Penguin is still pining over here, but we're getting by."

Brandt made a face. "Why did Benj – I mean _Batman_ – get to pick the code names this time?"

"Because I wasn't saying goodbye to my dog while we were being briefed on the mission," came Benji's clipped reply. "Besides, you can't deny these are the coolest names we've had in a while."

"Yes I can," Brandt snapped. "Batman is only cool when you're actually Batman. The rest of the characters suck."

"Take that back!"

"Guys," Carter interrupted. "You're clear. Get out of there."

The building was as close to empty as they were likely to see it, but Hunt still insisted it would be quicker to jump out the window. Brandt raised a skeptical eyebrow and took the stairs without incident.

They hopped into the back of the van before it had stopped, and it did not go unnoticed when Benji placed his headphones over his head and Carter turned up the volume on the radio to drown out Brandt's phonecall to the kennel owner.


End file.
